Biodynamic
Biodynamics This has always been farming country. The products of the land are the products that have always mattered to the economy here. Drek, they're why there's a "Here" to begin with. Therefore, its not surprising that when stolid, practical midwesterners go 'mystic' its in a way that relates to the land and the things that grow in it. The Biodynamicists are a strange, desperate marriage between small farmers, environmental activists, local food co-ops, hippie communes and DIY enthusiasts. They maintain a series of small, ultra-organic farms outside of the towns of the Zone , usually wedged in between the big megacorporate farms, community gardens in the towns they trade in (such as Fargo , Moorhead and Grand Forks ), and back-to-the land communes (notable for living in the 'earthships ' you can see driving in the country, like human hives rising up out of the prairie). The run a lot of informal (and often illegal) farmer's markets, encourage local food production where they can and try to survive 'off-the-grid' as much as you can in 2075. The largest, or at least best known, of these is Centralia, a commune out past Argusville, best known for its brief association with local shadowrunner Lady Lightrider. Naturally, there's a few shamans hidden among the number of these unwashed hippies, although they make a point not to stand out. They even have their own initiatory group, the "Crop Circle ". Funny guys, these farmers. Relations The Biodynamic community in the Zone has pretty close ties to the Co-op communities in the MSPlex, with similar culture and goals. They also cross over pretty heavily with the local Craftpunk scene, as they both have interests in making things and a lot of Craftpunks are also Biodynamicists and visa-versa. They do a lot of the business that's actually done at the Night Bazaar and among those responsible for helping to organize it. It should come as no surprise that they tend to be big supporters of more underground politics and there's also a lot of crossover between being Biodynamic and being a Prairie Public Underground member. Rumor has it there's even been some business between Biodynamic farmers and the Cowboy Mafia , outlaw to outlaw. Strange bedfellows indeed. History OK, so a bit of history lesson here, let's go back to before the Awakening . In those final days before Magic returned to the world, farming was changing, had been changing, from what it had been for centuries, millennia. The basic staples were being produced by larger farms using less people and bigger machines. Which left small farmers scrambling to survive by providing what the big corporate farms couldn't. Quality, not quantity. A lot of smaller producers went "organic", growing what was, ostensibly, higher-value food to sell to a more monied clientele. And then the Ghost Dance happened. Then Nature turned political and it definitely had a side. It turned against the settlers and the farmers and stood behind those who had originally owned the land. And they turned to any means that might get the land back on their side. With ties to the XR (extreme recycling) movement helping to rebuild the Twin Cities, local organic farmers, back-to-the-land types, pagan groups who just found out that the knowledge that wasn't useful yesterday was suddenly useful today, all banded together to try and rebuild the farming community in the region, trying to preserve some independent land in a time of Megacorporate land grabs. They've taken the 'Organic' strategy and doubled-down, using bits and pieces of esoteric lore and post-Awakening Anishinaabe techniques along with good-old-fashioned midwestern know-how to do anything they can to produce top-shelf produce. Usually the term they use is 'Biodynamic' which is a step past just 'Organic'. A lot of people see Biodynamicism as an off-shoot of Organic Farming, however it turns out with a little digging ("digging"? See what I did there?) that its just the opposite. In 1924 a german mystic and educator named Rudolf Steiner , who had been the leader of the German branch of Theosophy (a mystic philosophy that is going to sound awfully familiar to anyone who has done business with the Atlantean Foundation ), proposed a method of farming that intended to "restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony. Including crop diversification, the avoidance of chemical soil treatments and off-farm inputs generally, decentralized production and distribution, and the consideration of celestial and terrestrial influences on biological organisms." It wouldn't be until sixteen years later, until a man named Lord Northborne used Steiner's methods that the phrase 'organic farming' would be born. Return to: Culture Category:Culture